Journimalism lives at the NYTimes:
…Even before the two sides — or three sides, or 49 sides — meet Tuesday, critics have declared Mr. Bush’s Annapolis gathering the photo opportunity that Ms. Rice emphatically said it would not be only a month ago.
“The mother of all photo ops,” an Israeli official called it on Monday, underscoring the fact that when it comes to Middle East peace, skepticism is always in order.
That, however, does not necessarily mean that it will be a failed photo op. Mr. Bush’s approach has resulted in the first international conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict since the Madrid conference organized by his father’s secretary of state, James A. Baker III, in 1991.
As Hugh so aptly puts it, “How can you have a failed photo-op. Leave the lens cap on? Forget to put the film or memory chip in? This is a little like saying that this meeting will be trivial but successfully trivial.”
But the NYTimes doesn’t stop there:
For all the pomp of the Annapolis gathering, the White House is not calling it a summit meeting or anything else suggestive of substantive progress. Mr. Bush’s vision is ambitious, but his strategy is cautious — he may be repeating Mr. Clinton’s role, yet he rejects what he sees as the meddlesome quality of it.
Right-o. Thanks for clearing that one up, Georgie Boy. Because invading an entirely different country in a war of choice is the anti-meddle.
(Photo via Gabriel M.)
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Christy!
Christy!
what a day in Left-Blogistan, eh? FDL is on fire!
FunnyDiva
congrats, Ann in AZ
Thanks, Funnydiva! I just told them downstairs that the new thread is up. Now to read.
Well, I for one am glad that Bush has finally decided to be anti-meddle.
Me too, but I’m still working my way through Jane’s Joke Line thread and Glenzilla’s new post on the topic.
Big Fun at the Lake today!
FunnyD
And dontcha know, giving $3 billion a year to Israel isn’t like…meddlin’…or anything.
American Statesmanship, 2007
meddlesome (adj.): possessing knowledge of one or more facts regarding a matter at issue.
Rest assured,Georgie — no one will ever accuse you of that.
Elliott @ 7
and for the record, I never mocked Bush for using phonetic spelling in his speeches, he needs it.
CHS
See my report on NYC WGA rally two threads ago @103.
For all the pomp of the Annapolis gathering, the White House is not calling it a summit meeting or anything else suggestive of substantive progress. Mr. Bush’s vision is ambitious, but his strategy is cautious — he may be repeating Mr. Clinton’s role, yet he rejects what he sees as the meddlesome quality of it.
sounds like a ‘broderism’ or a ‘bobo brooks insight’……
Interesting theory. OTOH, who would believe that Carter would have accomplished anything with Menachem Began and Anwar Sadat if he hadn’t been meddlesome. None of these people, not Bush or his dad, not Clinton, would be in a position to do anything in the middle east if it weren’t for Carter’s breakthrough. I still believe that was a major benchmark met for the history of the middle east. And I can tell you, having lived through that period, I never thought I’d see the day.
Meaning, as usual, that Bush will believe that he deserves great credit for making “pledges” and declarations, without doing any hard work to make them come true. In his “L’tat, c’est moi” world, it shouldn’t require more than a royal decree to make things happen.
‘meddle’ in iraq is one thing…..
Great headline, Redd!
OT..But another scum bag Thug gets caught. Mark Everson removed as President of Red Cross after six months on the job. Got caught screwing a subordinate (male/female?). Has a wife and a couple of kids. This behavior just didn’t happen, someone needs to look at his time at IRS.
Media:
Pelosi’s Syria Diplomacy = ‘Foolish’
Bush’s Syria Diplomacy = ‘Victory’
The whole charade is nothing more than a nice political pudding for the post-clusterf*ck legacy dinners and speechifications. Nonsense to the core. Bad theater.
Elliott @ 17
IOKIYAR
I was about to say something similar to the commenter you mentioned…what is a failed photo-op? Was Abbas putting rabbit ears behind Olmert’s head? Were there kids running around nekkid? What the hell is a failed photo-op? And really, I don’ blame Monkey Boy for this (journalistic abomination). If this Steven Myers person can’t stop copying and pasting from Snarl’s talking points, that’s not Monkey’s fault. He’s responsible for many other things, but if he doesn’t have the rocks to right an intelligent, thoughtful “analysis” for the ol’ Grey Lady, that’s not his fault.
eCAHNomics @ 10
Hi Christy and eCAHNomics,
Hey I was there too! Hope I didn’t elbow you when I moved to the front to get some shots.
Christy, I e-mailed you some of the many pics I took. Say the word and I’ll send the rest.
Got there just after Gilbert Gottfreid spoke, so I was a little late.
bluejeansntshirt @ 21
You missed Edwards, then. Probably the closest any NYCer will ever get to a prez candidate. I took pics, but they’re analogue & won’t be able to get a disk until Thursday.
Love that picture. If he walks like a turkey and talks like a turkey …
“I’m a little teapot short and stout
This is my handle, this is my spout,
When I don’t get my way, watch me pout,
And your constitution I will flout!”
NBC’s First Read is reporting a new Strategic Vision (R) Iowa survey showing: Republicans: Romney 26% Huckabee 24% Giuliani 14% Thompson 10% McCain 7% Democrats: Clinton 29% Obama 29% Edwards 23% We will post the full results later this evening…”
Polling Report.com
Redshift @ 13
Very well put. Getting a result without doing any work is the story of W’s life, so why should he think it’ll be any different now?
It’s also a function of “creating your own reality.” If you do that, you tend to believe it’s so. W probably thinks that the peace deal is already in the bag.
rwcole @ 25
And it’s Chucklebee by a stretchmark.
-GSD
Bush is willing to bomb country’s willy-nilly and occupy them for years…But he doesn’t want to seem meddlesome at a peace conference.
By their fruits ye shall know them.
-GSD
eCAHNomics @ 10
Dang, missed Edwards and Nadler according to your report. Great job eCAHNomics. I did get some backstage shots of Kristin Davis, Edie Falco and others. Wish I had met another firepup there though. Maybe we’re in each others pics. Hehe.
from this morning:
to counter the propaganda generating machine, commonly referred to as the “annapolis peace conference” i recommend today’s excellent democracy now! amy goodman has long segments of noam chomsky and desmond tutu on the current I/P situation.
a most excellent and necessary corrective to the lies of our days.
strongly recommended.
American Goose @ 18
oh, i think it’s much more than that. a serious business indeed:
1) regardless of how the conference is described, isn’t it clearly about isolating iran (and not about creating a just settlement of the I/P situation)?
2) by pretending to have a peace conference the current I/P status quo (of forcing palestinians off their land and keeping them penned in open air prisons) can be re-branded as a “peace process”
We should schedule a NYC meet-up. (Didn’t hear you live on WJ, but listened to the replay. Nicely done.)
Wonder how other regional pups arrange get-togethers.
how i spent thanksgiving:
http://www.freewayblogger.com/thanksgiving07.htm
damn near all of them stayed up too…
Homegrown Terrorism Act another project for a Front Pager. This stuff scares the living daylights out of me.
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/11/27/14813/608
eCAHNomics @ 32
In South Central Texas we used a combo of Facebook and leaving email addys in thread to start the process. Once we had a few emails, we just started corresponding and building the list and making plans.
Whoa!
For the full story, follow the link.
Clinton’s strategy from the beginning (despite hiring Peter Daou, IIRC) has been to ignore us DFH aka netroots because, after all, we have nowhere to go, right? So what are we going to do? Vote Republican? Bwa ha ha ha ha!
Well, we could, like,
* not vote for her.
* not help her campaign
* put our money on netroots candidates for Congress instead of on her campaign
* sit on our hands.
The Republican theme has always been: Rally the Base! (A little irony there, if you look for it.) The Democratic (DLC) theme seems to be: Ignore the base! They’ll vote for you anyway! Lavish attention on so-called “Moderate” Republicans, i.e. conservative Republicans who express a reasonable opinion on one issue but are wingnuts about everything else. They cling to this strategy even though Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay banished every real Moderate years ago.
Maybe this strategy is about to bite Mrs. Clinton on a part of her anatomy seldom seen by the public, that she frequently uses while being introduced but seldom sees.
Back around 1991, I used to be a Hillary Clinton-Jesse Jackson Liberal. I wonder who’s changed more? Her, or me?
BTW, we shouldn’t be too hard on her. Running for president, and being a front runner, is a hard row to hoe. You get hit from all sides, and you can’t sigh and roll your eyes like Big Al did. You can’t lose your composure and respond in kind. You have to be always gracious, hoping for a swift move of your rapier to exploit an opponent’s weakness without appearing too bloodthirsty or vindictive. You have to be a fighter, and avoid at all costs the whining, hand-wringing “Woe is poor pitiful us; We can’t do what we were elected to do because of those nasty Republicans” schtick that our hapless congress critters have perfected, making Democrats in Congress look weak and indecisive.
Oops, excuse the over-long rant. OK someone else can use the soapbox now.
Bob in HI
eCAHNomics @ 32
Gotta run now but will see you in the threads.
We’ll figure something out.
eCAHNomics @ 32
join the google group for your state. ny is stateproject-newyork@googlegroups.com. and you’re lucky – it’s a pretty active group!
scarlet p. @ 33
Bravo! Good for you. How much time did it take?
OT..Rut..Roh..Repost?
link
Bush is just cementing things with the coalition of autocrats, monarchs, and strongmen so that he can launch some shock and awe Iran’s direction in the next few months.
-GSD
selise @ 38
selise, you are the fdl font of information!
thank you, just signed up for my state.
GSD @ 41
And, by nominating HRC, the Democrats are cementing things so that the next President is yet again from the Republic Party.
selise @ 38
Turns out I’d already joined. I get these cryptic emails that are so abbreviated & rely so much on what has gone one before that I can’t understand WTH is going on, so I just delete them.
bobschacht @ 36 –
you might want to read what cinnamonape (and others) had to say this morning about the zogby poll.
disclaimer – i don’t enough to make any judgment about the poll, but did want to bring to your attention this morning’s discussion, so you could make up your own mind.
p.s. dear joe klein, see how easy that was? if you don’t know anything about the topic or if the information you are about to pass on is true – you just have to say so from the begining.
The Zogby Interactive Poll, when it comes to polling something as challenging as the Iowa Caucus, isn’t worth the paper it isn’t written on.
Tucker’s having such an hysterical conversation about the R doldrums.
eCAHNomics @ 47
for a minute there I thought you said he had an hysterical conversion.
oh well, it was good for a chuckle :)
not only a war of choice, a war for the purpose of profit at the expense of our lives, at the expense of middle east lives, at the expense of our integrity, our treasure, at the expense of the battle against terrorists instead creating a marketing campaign on behalf of the terrorists increasing their number expnentially.
it is a war of profit, a war designed to redistribute the wealth of our country and the middle east, a war designed with the precise intention of destroying our armed forces so they can privatize and profit for generations.
I could go on but it would get past bedtime if I did
eCAHNomics @ 44
that’s fine! but if you want to have a meet up – you can start a new thread by sending an email to the group (you don’t have to read everything to participate – sorta like here).
i joined your state’s group after schumer’s support for the mukasey nomination…. and just started a thread with something like, “hi, i’m from ma and pissed at schumer. what are you-all doing about it and is there anything i can do to help”… everyone was very nice and welcoming to me. and there are plenty of people in the group that you will also see here in the threads (like JayAckroyd) and you’ll be able to get everyone’s individual email addys if you want to email them off the group threads.
hope you will give it a try!
New thread upstairs!
FunnyDiva
Elliott @ 42
maybe i should think about being a teacher… *g*
scarlet p. @ 33
i bow before your genius and hard work. brilliant!!!
actually, i brought this article up last night for the crowd to discuss. as i mentioned at the time, it was gagworthy.
Joe Biden is NewsHour’s candidate interview, just starting
That’s the only thing that Bush does consistently well…. smiling for the camera.
The Bush war-mongers are hosting a “Mideast peace conference” in Annapolis (the home of the Naval Academy, part of our war-making machine)? The Bush gangster regime has illegally invaded and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush has murdered over one million Iraqis in his vile blood-lust. Bush has forced millions of Iraqis to flee and leave Iraq. Bush had given the zionist imperialist Israelis one million cluster bombs which they in turn dropped on the Lebanonese people… Bush has tried to destroy Hamas, the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people Peace is the absence of war. Peace is also the absence of war-mongering. So Bush and Cheney should stop their war-mongering and saber-rattling against the Iranian people. And now this war-criminal has the gall to organize a “peace” conference? Grotesque…
This is akin to Hitler and the German Nazis trying to stage a “Scandinavian Peace Conference” in Hamburg in 1941 after they invaded and occupied Denmark and Norway…
terri @ 56
Fixed.
“It’s worth a try” – what an effing moron!
twolf1 @ 59
An effing moronic maroon of a moron!
Where’s Punaise when we need him.
FunnyD
Funnydiva2002 @ 58
Oops. meant to insert “smirking” after the strikeover. Oops.
Like it matters…
An international conference is the public climax of consistent, intense, informed private diplomacy, pursued simultanteously at junior, mid- and senior professional levels.
Among the first things a diplomat determines is who has authority to make decisions, are they willing to make the ones important to you, and have they the domestic backing in their government to keep any promises made. It’s not clear here whether even Bush’s knows the answers to those questions about himself. Which makes the odds of concluding a demanding new agreement (on what, exactly?) about longstanding conflicts quite poor. That’s one form of useful primer about this conference we’re not likely to see written up in the traditional media.
On this NYT piece specifically, to echo the chorus, a photo op, by definition, is substanceless image-selling. Expecting substance from an incurious, uninformed (ignorant), attention-deficit-burdened boy-man is like expecting critical news reporting from, well, Time. We do expect it from the New York Times, though, and we ain’t getting it. What gives?
it’s a total farce–they’re planning the Iran attacks in all those “private talks” at the WH.
if they were serious, they’d hold it in a neutral country and would have invited Iran too.
Just try to guess what picture is front-paged with the lead story in today’s NYT?
You guessed it: the photo op. Bush shaking hands with Elmo and Moohominahomina, as he calls them.
A few minutes of showing up after seven years of nothing, and the Times goes along with the farce that Bush is “involved.”